If it’s good enough for Prince William and Kate Middleton, it’s good enough for us, too. North Island in the Seychelles provided the backdrop for the royal honeymoon – and it’s not hard to see what lured the lovebirds in. There’s the sailor-seducing setting for starters, plus the private-island idyll’s wealth of wow-factor extras: enough flora and fauna to keep Sir David Attenborough coming back for more, a clifftop infinity pool, a PADI dive centre, a duo of dazzling restaurants and VIP villas with views worth waxing lyrical about. Pirates once set their compass here in the hope of unburied treasure; you can just hit the va-va-voom boutique.

Smith Extra

Facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Check–Out

11am; earliest check-in, 2pm. Both times are flexible, subject to availability, but late-check out after 5.30pm will be charged for an additional night's stay.

Rates

Double rooms from $6636.57 (€5,923), excluding tax at 15 per cent.

More details

Rates include local tax, a three per cent service charge, all meals and most drinks (bar some top-drawer wine, champagne and spirits), your island and activities (scuba diving, daily yoga, half-day fishing and one spa treatment each).

Also

In-villa massages and beauty treatments can be arranged in the blink of an eye.

Our favourite rooms

There are no duds in this billion-dollar bunch: any of the 11 villas will more than do (trust us).

Poolside

Take a dip in the infinity pool near the spa – it comes with the requisite life-changing views, of course. Each villa also has its own small pool.

Spa

Even a frazzled, off-duty monarch-in-training would be wooed by North Island’s soothing, ocean-spying spa, which uses oceanic Thalgo marine spa products in its indulgent treatments. (If leaving your villa seems a tad too onerous, request an in-villa rub, scrub or facial.) Ease yourself into the day with morning yoga, or hit the gym and give the state-of-the-art Technogym equipment a workout.

Packing tips

Deliberately ‘forget’ your swimwear, sun towel and/or beach accessories: you’ll have no choice but to stock up on new ones from North Island’s enticing boutique.

Also

Any guest under 19 must be accompanied by two paying adults, who'll need to stay in the same Presidential Villa. For 17–19 year olds, each extra bed is from €793 a night.

Children

Lucky little Smiths: if they’re 16-and-under, they can stay for free. Children can only stay in the Presidential Villas, which sleep two adults and two little Smiths. Babysitting is free (trained childminders can also be arranged, for an extra cost).

Best for

All ages.

Recommended rooms

Any of the 10 Presidential villas will wow you. Children can only stay in the Presidential Villas, which sleep two adults and two kids.

Activities

The hotel’s North Island Bush Buddy programme gives your little Smiths the chance to take part in an array of activities both on dry land and in the water. (All the activities are fully supervised, so frazzled parents can enjoy some alone time if they wish.) Options include fun lessons on the island’s ecology, pizza-making classes, pirate treasure hunts, snorkelling and diving, beach volleyball, tot-tailored spa treatments and more.

Meals

The West Beach Bar will woo junior eaters with its pizzas, salads and snacks.

Babysitting

Free babysitting can be arranged; if you want a trained babysitter, one can be arranged for an additional cost.

No need to pack

The hotel has travel cots, pint-sized bicycles and baby bath products. Toys and games for older ones are provided.

Also

Borrow a baby monitor if you need one. There's a €793 nightly charge for teens aged 17 to 19.

Eco&dash;friendly

Very: the hotel runs a conservation and island-rehabilitation programme called ‘Noah’s Ark’. North Island’s admirable philosophy is two-fold: to honour the environment above all else, and to endeavour to turn back the ecological clock.

Dress Code

Hotel restaurant

The Piazza offers proposal-worthy private dining in a ravishing range of locations: eat in the shade of a towering takamaka tree by day, or dine beneath a twinkling canopy of equatorial stars by night. The menu is shaped by the seasons, but a noted favourite is the squid-ink linguini with lobster, freshly caught red snapper, langoustines and local octopus (best enjoyed with an ice-cold glass of fruity chardonnay). For more casual offerings – pizza, salads, barbecued treats – hit up West Beach Bar; you can also have chef-cooked feasts brought to your villa.

Hotel bar

Enjoy cocktails such as the BOB Mojito – starring island-grown passion fruit, mint, and bitter local oranges planted on the island centuries ago by pirates – at the chilled-to-horizontal West Beach Bar. The Minuty Prestige Rosé deserves special mention; then again, there are more than 2,000 premium wines to choose from…

Room service

Location

Address

North Island

Victoria

Mahe

Seychelles

Your new home is a private-island paradise in the sensationally scenic Seychelles.

Planes

Mahé International Airport is 40 kilometres away (a 15-minute chopper ride). Let Smith24 sort your flights. For an extra charge, you can be greeted on arrival at the airport by the Air Seychelles team as part of the Fast Track service; they’ll whisk you away to the lounge for your helicopter transfer to North Island.

Other

You’ll need to catch a helicopter ride to get there from Mahé; flights should be arranged with North Island when booking your stay. An additional charge applies – check with our Smith24 Team or North Island for current rates – but talk about arriving in style.

Worth getting out of bed for

Explore the island: each villa comes with an island buggy and bikes, so you can go wherever you like, whenever you wish. Keep your eyes peeled for the incredible local wildlife, which includes giant tortoises, fruit bats and crab-plovers. (Obliging staff can arrange eco-tours.) Stretch out with morning group yoga sessions (or arrange private yoga sessions for an addtional cost), and make the most of the hotel’s PADI dive centre (all scuba diving courses, scuba diving activities and snorkelling in and around the North Island and Silhouette dive sites are included) and go on an underwater adventure; you could encounter whale sharks, manta rays and blotch-eye soldiers and more. Visit the aptly named Honeymoon Beach and enjoy a dip in the turquoise waters (or simply starfish on the sand). Sun-worshippers can also stretch out on East Beach (the island’s main beach) or West Beach, which is perfect for sunset sessions. Shore-based fishing and half day fishing trips are included; if you want to sail out for the full day there's an extra charge. Go kayaking, surfing, stand-up paddle boarding, and cycling (all included in your stay) – or treat yourselves to an afternoon spent in the blissful spa (guests staying in a Presidential Villa will get one 30-minute massage each with their stay; it's a 60-minute massage each for guests in Villa North Island). Invest in an Aquapac from the boutique and stage your own underwater photo shoot, using your newly waterproofed phone. Sunset cruises and guided walks are also included in your stay.

Reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this eco-kind hotel in the middle of the ocean and unpacked their diamonds and deck shoes, a full account of their private-island break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside North Island in the Seychelles…

Forget what you’ve heard about pirates: they’re not all bad. They planted the bitter little oranges that now add citrusy oomph to North Island’s potent cocktails, after all. (Admittedly, they were mainly interested in stashing away their plunder, as opposed to horticulture, but we’re grateful nevertheless.) Today’s stewards of North Island are a more peaceable and law-abiding bunch; the staff also demonstrate an ardent love for the island’s Attenborough-worthy flora and fauna, and will happily give guests a mini lesson in its ecology and conservation. Understanding more about the natural beauty of your Edenic setting will only add to your enjoyment of its considerable man-made lures, which include VIP villas, a clifftop infinity pool and a wallet-wrecking North Island boutique. No wonder the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge gave it the royal-honeymooning seal of approval…

The Guestbook

Whenever you book a stay at a Smith hotel or villa, we’ll invite you to review it when you get back. Read what other Smith members had to say in North Island’s Guestbook below.

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